Faculty News

Facutly Retirement: Maryellen Bieder

Maryellen Bieder has devoted 38 years of her professional life to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, but her connection to this institution did not begin with her arrival as an assistant professor in 1976. After having been awarded her AB degree from Lawrence University, she received her MA from IU-Bloomington, ultimately earning her PhD at the University of Minnesota.

Maryellen has always encouraged her students and colleagues to act with intellectual integrity and to hold themselves and their research projects to the highest of standards. As a colleague, a scholar, and a teacher, Maryellen is inimitable, whether she is bringing a special chispa (spark) to faculty discussions or thoughtfully encouraging her undergraduate and graduate students to consider new ways of thinking about literature. It is truly a treat to walk down the hall of Ballantine’s eighth floor and witness her engagement with those students.

One of Maryellen’s greatest loves—very possibly the result of having spent her junior year studying at the University of Madrid—is Spain. She knows the country’s politics, society, culture, and literature, but she also appreciates dinner in one of Madrid’s great restaurants, visits to the capital’s bookstores, and its theaters.

She has learned Catalan and has taught courses in Catalan literature and culture, and she has encouraged countless students to study abroad; she even served for a year as the Resident Director of the Wisconsin-Indiana-Purdue program in Madrid. Maryellen is an adjunct faculty member in Women’s (Gender) Studies and in Comparative Literature, and she has been affiliated with West European Studies (EURO), Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and International Studies.

Maryellen has established herself as a scholar of international stature in the field of Spanish literature and culture of the nineteenth century (although much of her research extends to explore the works of contemporary writers), with expertise and interest in gender theory and texts by Spanish women writers. Maryellen is considered the leading international expert on the Galician writer Emilia Pardo Bazán, and she has brought other women writers—Mercè Rodoreda, Carmen de Burgos, Carme Riera, Marina Mayoral, Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer—to international attention.

She has authored Narrative Perspective in the Post-Civil War Novels of Francisco Ayala and has edited or co-edited two volumes, Writing Against the Current and La novela en español, hoy (The Novel in Spanish, Today, which emanated from a major symposium that she helped organize and which brought to Bloomington the internationally renowned writers Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa), and her research has also produced 55 single-authored book chapters and journal articles, as well as dozens of conference presentations and invited lectures.

Her current book-length project is "Women in the Public Eye: Images of Spanish Women Authors in the Periodical Press, 1880-1920," and she is an invited member of an international research project that is examining connections in contemporary culture among women, literature, and the internet. Maryellen’s research during her years as a faculty member at IU has been groundbreaking, and she has continued to produce work of high quality in a variety of professional venues.

Her national and international service reflects her stature in the profession: through her work as a reviewer for professional organizations, presses, and journals; her election to Modern Language Association executive committees and the delegate assembly; her contributions as a referee for dozens of tenure and promotion committees; and her service on prestigious editorial and advisory boards, Maryellen Bieder continues to leave an indelible mark on her field.

Maryellen’s grants and honors are numerous. She was awarded a major research grant by the Fulbright Commission and numerous travel and research grants from IU (New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities, CAHI, and International Projects and Activities, to name just a few) and from the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain and US Universities and the Mellon Foundation. She won the Francis M. Kercheville Prize from the journal Anales Galdosianos and, in 2011, an award from the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts as an "Alumna of Notable Achievement."

Seventeen students have earned dissertations writing under Maryellen’s careful direction, and she has served on the dissertation committees of eighteen more, two of whom were students from Cambridge University and the University of Auckland. In recent years, one former graduate student has honored her mentor and role model by funding a graduate student travel grant in Maryellen’s name.

Although it is hard to imagine the eighth floor of Ballantine Hall without her, there is little doubt that Maryellen and her husband, Bob, will make good use of her retirement, from enjoying their cottage in Michigan to traveling in Europe; she will certainly continue to conduct her research and stay on top of her field. I join our department in wishing her well as she begins this new adventure.

-Catherine Larson

Faculty Retirement: Darlene Sadlier

Darlene J. Sadlier began her career in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in 1978 and directed its Portuguese Program for 32 years. She served as department chair from 1996 to 2000. In her 36 years at Indiana University, Darlene’s promotion of the study of language, literature and culture made its mark throughout the campus and the greater community. In addition, her wide-ranging publications distinguished her as a leading scholar of the Lusophone world.

Darlene’s development of Lusophone studies at IU spanned many disciplines. She taught more than thirty distinct graduate and undergraduate courses, many offered jointly with Gender Studies, Communication and Culture, African Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and West European Studies. The recipient of a Trustees’ Teaching Award, Darlene directed numerous dissertations and theses, and guided students to successful careers in and out of academia. Renato Alvim, a former doctoral student who teaches at American University in Washington, D.C., states: "Darlene Sadlier has been a great inspiration in my academic life. Her passion for Lusophone cultures, especially literature and cinema, is contagious." Zak Montgomery, now an assistant professor at Wartburg College, regards Darlene as "an example of a lifelong scholar…[who] provided her students with the opportunity to work with visiting scholars, filmmakers, and other experts in Lusophone studies." While Darlene’s research and teaching focus primarily on literature, film, history and art, the breadth of her interests and engagement in the Humanities is impressive. She held adjunct appointments or affiliations in no less than eight units throughout the College.

Under Darlene’s leadership, the Portuguese program grew in size and visibility thanks in good measure to her many scholarly initiatives and the robust intellectual culture they fostered. The Portuguese program hosted a number of distinguished scholars and intellectuals, including Cícero Sandroni (former president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters), historian Thomas Skidmore, literature scholar Vítor Manual de Aguiar e Silva, and renowned Lusophone writers Luis Bernardo Honwana, Silviano Santiago and João Ubaldo Ribeiro.

Her campus-wide collaborations nourished a broad appreciation of Lusophone literature and cultures. She worked closely with the Lilly Library on several projects, including an exhibition on the Portuguese-speaking diaspora and an online Brasiliana finding aid, which continues to draw international attention to the related treasures of the library. Becky Cape, retired Head of Reference and Public Services, writes that Darlene "has been tireless in promoting the use of primary resources and of the Lilly Library." A vigorous promoter of film studies and an active member of the IU Cinema Advisory Board, she organized numerous events that showcased Lusophone cinema, including a Brazilian film festival and film retrospectives involving renowned directors Pedro Costa and Nelson Pereira dos Santos. IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers writes, "Darlene Sadlier’s work with the IU Cinema has been transformative for our program. Not only has she served on the Cinema’s Program Advisory Board since its inception, she has initiated visits and procured funding for some of our most important guests. We are deeply indebted."

In addition to enriching the campus’s intellectual culture, Darlene’s many activities have enhanced IU’s international stature by way of exchanges and collaborations. Kathleen Sideli, Associate Vice President for Overseas Study, writes that "Throughout her career, Darlene has always ensured that IU students of Portuguese had access to quality study abroad programs, in Brazil as well as Portugal…Due to her efforts, IU has steadily sent students abroad every year to further their study of Portuguese for decades and through Darlene’s mentorship of her successors, this will continue to be the case long after she retires."

Darlene was part of President Michael McRobbie’s 2012 delegation to South America. Drawing on her long-standing professional relations with several members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, she was instrumental in the making of an exchange agreement between Indiana University and the Academy in 2013.

As a scholar, Darlene is recognized nationally and internationally in the field of Luso-Brazilian Studies. Her publications have involved (among other topics) studies of Brazilian and Portuguese prose and poetry, women’s writing and visual arts. The author of seven monographs (with an eighth now under contract), she has edited or co-edited nine critical anthologies and authored more than 40 book chapters and articles. Her work has won her numerous distinctions, including an IU Distinguished Faculty Award, a $20,000 prize for Best Essay awarded by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as grants and fellowships from the NEH, Fulbright Commission, Gulbenkian Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Lilly Foundation, and Rockefeller Archive Center.

Darlene’s contributions to Lusophone studies are widely recognized. Severino Albuquerque (University of Wisconsin-Madison) considers her "the preeminent North American-based critic of Brazilian literature and culture." Randal Johnson (UCLA) places her "at the forefront of our field for at least the past twenty years." Her book Brazil Imagined, 1500 to the Present (2008) represents the first comprehensive cultural history of Brazil to be written in English, and it is being translated for publication in Brazil. Darlene is also known for her groundbreaking research in the areas of gender studies, film and US-Brazil relationships. Brazilian scholar and writer Silviano Santiago ranks her as "the most important specialist in the study of literary and artistic relations between the United States and Brazil during the period of World War II." Darlene has delivered dozens of public lectures, many of which were invited or keynote speeches in distinguished venues, including the Library of Congress, the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin), the Matteo Ricci Institute (Macau), in addition to leading universities in Brazil and Portugal.

Darlene’s predecessor in the Portuguese Program, Professor Emeritus Heitor Martins, writes that Darlene "was always the best colleague anyone could wish for. She is not only an outstanding scholar, but also a most active and innovative director of a language, literature and cinema academic program. Her retirement from IU represents a great loss for our program, but it is made more acceptable only by her lasting legacy." Indeed, Darlene’s many contributions to the university will endure for years to come.

-Luciana Namorato

Faculty Profile: Ricardo Andrés Guzmán

The department warmly welcomes Ricardo Andrés Guzmán (PhD University of Arizona, 2013), a new assistant professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese with a specialization in US Latina/o literature and culture.

He is currently working on a book manuscript which draws on contemporary philosophy to rethink ideas of citizenship and nation in contexts ranging from the French and American revolutions, Cold War denationalization and deportation campaigns in the US, Chicano nationalism and the legal construction of Chicano identity, mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration, and recent legislation against Mexican-American studies in Arizona.

His doctoral research was aided by several awards including a Mellon Summer Dissertation Fellowship in 2012 and a tuition scholarship to attend the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University during the summer of 2010. In 2013 he received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Outstanding Graduate Associate in Teaching Award from the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona.

He recently authored "From Highways to High-Rises: The Urbanization of Capital, Consciousness and Labor Struggle in Ken Loach's Bread and Roses," which was published in the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 16 (2012): 101-118.

Faculty Profile: Jonathan Risner

We are pleased to welcome Jonathan Risner (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2012) to the department. Jonathan specializes in Latin American and Latina/o cinemas, and his current research focuses on contemporary Latin American genre cinema and cultural studies, as well as Latina/o horror cinema.

He has published articles and book chapters about Argentinian horror cinema and its transnational reception as well as a piece on mainstream and ‘alternative’ Latina/o and queer comics. His current projects include a monograph on contemporary Argentinian horror cinema that examines foundational moments of horror in nineteenth-century Argentinian texts, national horror cinema’s recent resurgence, and the allegorization and erasure of national socio-economic, historical, and cultural crises.

Jonathan is also working on articles about Latina/o zombie films, Latin American haunted house films, transnational collaborations among Latin American and U.S. horror film directors, and filmic representations of gated communities in Argentinian cinema.

Jonathan thoroughly appreciates the warm welcome he has received in the department and campus, and he looks forward to collaborating with colleagues and students. Thus far, Jonathan, his wife, and two kids have enjoyed Bloomington and all it has to offer.

Faculty Books and Awards

Anke Birkenmaier, with John Nieto Philips (History and Latino Studies), received a 2013 Ostrom Grant in support of their project, "Transnational Lives: IU Film Festival & Conference. She was also granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor."

Deborah Cohn was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2013.

Manuel Díaz-Campos published Introducción a la Sociolingüística Hispánica, Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

Melissa Dinverno was awarded a New Frontiers Exploratory Travel Fellowship for research on her book project, Rewriting Lorca: Modernism, Publication, Folklore and (Trans)nationalisms in 1920-1930s Spain. She was selected as the department’s 2014 Trustees’ Teaching Award recepient.

Patrick Dove received the 2013 Outstanding Mentor Award given by the departments’ Graduate Student Advisory Council.

César Félix-Brasdefer was awarded an Emergency Grant-in-Aid from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research to support his book project, The Language of Service Encounters: A Pragmatic-Discoursive Approach.

Kimberly Geeslin published the edited volume The Handbook of Spanish Second Language Acquisition, Wiley-Blackwell in 2013. She was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2013, and was also invited to give the keynote address at the Second Annual Hispanic & Luso-Brazilian Linguistics Conference, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

Laura Gurzynski-Weiss received a Short-Term Faculty Exchange with the University of Seville, an Institute for European Studies International Conference Grant, an OVPIA International Conference Grant, and an OVPR Grant-in-Aid for the project Interlocutor Individual Differences in Instructed Second Language Acquisition.

Andrés Guzmán and Jonathan Risner received a College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) Conference Grant for an event they are organizing at the IU Cinema in Fall 2014.

Israel Herrera has been appointed president of the Indiana chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese for the term 2014-2016. He was named 2014 Indiana Latino Educator of the Year by the Indiana Latino Expo.

Virginia Hojas Carbonell received the department’s 2013 Core Lecturer Teaching Award, and subsequently won the university-wide NTT Trustees Teaching Award.

Consuelo López-Morillas, Professor Emerita, published a book translation, The Orient in Spain: Converted Muslims, the Forged Lead Books of Granada, and the Rise of Orientalism, Brill in Leiden, 2013.

James Lynch was selected as a Summer Fellow for Projected Engage sponsored by the Service Learning Program of the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning.

Giselle Martins received the 2014 Department of Spanish and Portuguese Core Lecturer Teaching Award, and was then selected among many other core lecturers to receive a university-wide Trustees Teaching Award.

Kathleen Myers, after working to establish a faculty teaching exchange with the University of Seville, was the first IU faculty to participate in the exchange in Fall 2013. She received a Grant-in-Aid from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research to support her book project The Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City and a CAHI Research Travel Grant for travel to Spain for her book project on trashumancia. She also was selected as recipient of the department’s 2013 Trustees Teaching Award for tenure-stream faculty.

Luciana Namorato was selected for the new short-term faculty research program with the Brazilian Academy of Letters in Río de Janeiro, where she will conduct research on the work of Machado de Assis. She also received an Emergency Grant-in-Aid in support of her research trip to Guatemala.

Jonathan Risner received a CAHI Research Travel Grant for travel to Buenos Aires for his book project on contemporary Argentinian horror cinema.

Darlene Sadlier published Americans All: Good Neighbor Diplomacy in World War II. University of Texas Press, 2012. She was awarded a CAHI Travel Grant to travel to Macao to research her book project, The Lusophone Diaspora in Literature and the Arts, and also received a Grant-in-Aid from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research for the same project.

Estela Vieira received a New Frontiers Exploratory Travel Fellowship to conduct research on the work of Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon. She was also granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.